We’ve already made a slew of announcements at Mobile World Congress. My colleague Ali Rehman has the broadest recap. If I was forced to summarize all of them in one sentence, it would be: We’re accelerating our cross-platform, enterprise-focused software strategy. Or as our CEO John Chen put it: “I think there’s a much bigger opportunity to enable our software on other platforms.”

Press and analysts praised both the strategy and the tactics. Take our Sunday announcement that we are expanding our partnership with Samsung by bringing two key mobile enterprise services to Samsung’s Knox security platform: WorkLife, which enables companies to more easily track employees’ personal and work usage of their smartphones – key in the BYOD age – and SecuSUITE, the strong encrypted communications software that BlackBerry acquired last year. The two firms will also help sell each others’ offerings to its enterprise customers.

Are your vendors helping or hurting? Many ad hoc solutions really aren’t “solutions,” especially when they don’t address the range of ways that organizations deploy devices, from BYOD to COPE to COBO.

Thanks to BES12’s cross-platform capabilities, those challenges become much easier to handle, with virtually all major mobile platforms – from BlackBerry to Android, iOS and Windows Phone to Samsung KNOX – addressed by powerful-yet-simple EMM tools available out of the box.

According to IDC, “BES12 meets the market’s extraordinarily complex requirements by delivering a modern platform to manage all endpoints.”

With the advent of BES12 Cloud, BES 12 version 12.1, and enhancements to BBM Protected and BBM Meetings, those capabilities are expanding.

BES12 Cloud Makes Powerful EMM Simple

BES12 Cloud makes mobility easy for small businesses. For SMBs, looking to mobility to help start and grow their business, BES12 Cloud makes managing apps and data easy with a cloud based EMM solution that is secure, flexible and simple to deploy and easy to use. Businesses powered by BES12 Cloud are more protected and more productive.

Coming later in March, BES12 Cloud will give enterprises the EMM tools to securely manage their phones and tablets, however that is done.

Geared towards enterprises looking to manage mobile devices, BES12 Cloud will protect their corporate data and enable employee productivity, all through a simple browser interface and without complicated or expensive server installs. Plus, its simple setup and configuration also makes it easy for SMBs to adopt cross-platform EMM and take advantage of cloud-based productivity and collaboration solutions like BlackBerry Blend and BBM Meetings.

Buying BES12 Cloud can be done 100 percent online. It only takes minutes from purchase to EMM service availability in the cloud. The low monthly subscriptions also include BlackBerry’s award-winning technical support.

Balancing the Needs of the Business and the End-User

A recent BlackBerry-commissioned global survey of individuals responsible for governance, risk and compliance in their enterprise found 77 percent of respondents cited increasing difficulty in balancing the needs of the business and those of the end user when it comes to mobility.

The span of capabilities offered by BES12 along with BlackBerry’s unmatched security is why organizations such as Essar Group, TATA Power Delhi Distribution Limited and Tarpon Energy Services Ltd have selected BES12 as their EMM vendor of choice.

“We have implemented BES12 in our organization to cater to the needs of EMM in our environment and are planning to trial the new BES12 Cloud solution,” said Jayantha Prabhu, Chief Technology Officer, Essar Group. “Our BYOD policy allows employees to have a choice. For example, some of our users have opted to upgrade to the BlackBerry 10 platform, especially those who want the QWERTY keyboard experience and have chosen a device like the BlackBerry Classic, while others are using Android, iOS or Windows devices. BES12 helps us manage all of this, with the peace of mind that our corporate data remains secure.”

New Enhancements to BES12’s On-premise Platform are also Coming

BES12’s on-premise suite of tools is also getting some new enhancements with version 12.1.

Key new features available today include:

Government and Security Enhancements for BlackBerry 10: New administrator capabilities include BlackBerry 10 OS version control, more options for work email regulation, and the ability to perform wired activation of BlackBerry 10 devices with BES12 within tightly controlled, centralized deployments.

Enhanced Android Management: BES12 version 12.1 adds support for Samsung KNOX Standard, with support for the KNOX Workspace planned for an upcoming release of BES12, which will also feature BlackBerry Secure Connectivity. Additionally, BES12 and BES12 Cloud will manage devices equipped with Android for Work, Google’s solution to securely separate business and personal data and applications.

Enhanced Administrator Experience: Seamless administrator sign-on into the BES12 console without requiring login credentials and dynamic support for new BES12 IT policy controls as new OS updates are introduced.

BBM Meetings – Now Integrated into Microsoft Outlook

BBM Meetings offers a new way to collaborate and be more productive from any Android, iPhone, BlackBerry 10 smartphone or Windows PC or Mac. It combines a mobile-optimized user experience that allows on-the-go professionals to schedule, host and participate in meetings anywhere you have an internet connection. New enhancements to BBM Meetings include a Microsoft Outlook plug-in that enables customers to directly schedule and start a BBM Meeting from the Microsoft Outlook client on a Windows desktop.

BBM Protected Bumps Up Security

provides enterprise-grade encryption for cross-platform BBM messages. The enhancement to BBM Protected extends the security of BBM Protected conversations to non-BBM Protected users. Now all conversations initiated by a BBM Protected user can be secured, regardless of whether the other person is a BBM Protected user or not. With this enhancement, now an enterprise using BBM Protected can be assured that all of their employees’ communications are fully protected, even when communicating outside of their company.

A Powerful EMM Combination

BES12 and BES12 Cloud offer the solutions to meet your EMM needs, no matter how complex they are.

Follow us on @BlackBerry for all the latest news and announcements from Mobile World Conference 2015 (#MWC15)

]]>http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2015/03/bes12-cloud/feed/0BBRY2674_Cloud_blog_feature_smallalrehman81BBRY2674_Cloud_LinkedIn_CompanyBBRY2674_Cloud_blog_feature_small1x1_Passport_BBM_Meetings_InMeeting_ENGFive Ways You Can Manage Corporate BYOD Expenses All Wronghttp://bizblog.blackberry.com/2014/12/wrong-byod-expenses/
http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2014/12/wrong-byod-expenses/#commentsThu, 04 Dec 2014 14:40:28 +0000http://bizblog.blackberry.com/?p=15155/ Read More]]>BYOD has many benefits, but it has also created new security and management challenges for organizations. While BES and other MDM solutions are tackling security, managing mobile identity and phone bills was, until recently, unsolved.

The easiest solution might seem to be for companies to simply pay their BYOD employees’ entire phone bill. But that can add up to substantial costs which profit-minded firms would rather not pay. The opposite approach – forcing employees to pay the entire bill – undermines the attractiveness of BYOD to employees, and is increasingly against the law. In California, courts ruled earlier this year that businesses must reimburse employees for work calls made on their personal phones.

Splitting phone bills between work and individual use was difficult until recently, though. Companies can force employees to comb through reams of paperwork every month to get phone calls reimbursed, or they can offer stipends. While everyone hates filing expense reports, with stipends companies run the risk of overpaying their employees – not as much as if they picked up the entire bill, but easily by 10-15%. Also, stipends are considered a taxable benefit by most local authorities, further eroding their attractiveness.

Launched earlier this month, the WorkLife solution from BlackBerry offered through its carrier partners allows enterprises to cleanly and easily split their mobile bills between work and personal use. With WorkLife, enterprises can assign additional phone numbers to employees’ personal devices or attach their personal numbers to corporate-owned devices. The phone bill is automatically split and the carrier sends two separate bills, one to the company and another one directly to the employee. No more billing surprises from roaming-happy executives, no more customers lost when employees leave and take their telephone number – and associated contacts – with them.

Buyer Beware: Not every solution that claims to split BYOD bills can do it as elegantly and comprehensively as WorkLife does. If you work for an enterprise or a carrier that is investigating phone bill-splitting solutions, here are 5 things you need to consider:

Does this solution interject a third-party between the enterprise and the carrier? Most enterprises prefer to continue to deal directly with their carrier, which WorkLife does. But other vendors insist on placing themselves between the enterprise and the carrier, changing the billing relationship. That’s fine, until the first time there is a disputed charge or other billing problem. Then, you’ll probably wish that you were dealing directly with the carrier instead of negotiating simultaneously with two potentially-adversarial parties.

Does this solution cover my voice, text AND data bills? WorkLife does, but many solutions do not. One provider, for example, can only split the data portion of the bill. With that solution, employees would have to continue to file expense reports for that expensive phone call they made overseas. It would also not comply with the California law that explicitly requires employers to reimburse employees for voice calls on personal phones.

Does this solution rely on VoIP? VoIP continues to face issues with voice quality and roaming costs, and require users to use separate apps on the handset. That creates such a hassle that many users will just forget or consciously avoid using the apps. By contrast, WorkLife lets employees connect over regular mobile networks using their existing phone numbers, with the same quality of service and the same cost.

Does this solution break when employees travel? Some split-bill solutions falter when employees roam off their home network. Employees don’t even need to be traveling far from home; some solutions break when an employee’s phone switches from 4G to 3G networks in their native coverage area (due to their reliance on LTE/IMS technology). When that happens, all of the employee’s charges will be grouped into one bill and the main SIM contract (either employee or enterprise) will be charged. This brings back the need for those unloved expense reports, which split-billing was supposed to replace. None of these issues apply to WorkLife, by the way.

Does this solution help you retain customers? Some split-billing solutions only tackle expense management. WorkLife, by creating a virtual SIM replete with an additional corporate-controlled telephone number, also lets companies manage identities, too. That means if a top executive or salesperson leaves, the IT administrator can easily remove the corporate number from his or her phone and attach it to someone else’s device. All incoming calls of customers and business partners managed through the corporate identity/phone number stay with the company.

BYOD can be a great boon to enterprises and employers alike. But to make it work for everyone, you need to manage it right. And that includes the expense and identity side of BYOD. Make sure you don’t deploy a less than ideal solution that includes one or more of the above fails – there is a better one around.

Passwords are the worst. Let’s face it. I spent a few minutes this morning thinking about how many I have in general, across my work life and my personal life. I lost count somewhere around 30, and those are ones I actually use at least once a month. There’s a whole substrata of logins and passwords that, thankfully, I don’t need more than once a year.

For work, I use my fair share of apps, both on my laptop and on my smartphone. These days, many of them are cloud-based: things like Salesforce.com, Office365, Box, WebEx, and Workday. So I’m constantly logging in to the critical tools I use to do my job all day long. Some of them remember my identity for a set period, which saves me some pain. But others don’t. And because I work for BlackBerry, I know a thing or two about security, so I use a different password for every tool, and I change them all the time.

I’m not kidding when I tell you I must have to do a password reset once a week. It gobbles up time I could spend in so many better ways. For enterprises, surely this is a productivity problem.

An IT Nightmare

I was complaining to my friend who works in IT about this the other day.

He pointed out that although it’s annoying for me and costly for businesses, it’s even more concerning for people like him. He said, “In most companies, IT has very little ability to see what you’re doing with your cloud apps. I used to install software on everybody’s machines. You forgot your password, I’d help you out. You tried to do something stupid, I made sure you couldn’t. Now, the majority of the key tools employees are using are cloud-based, and IT doesn’t have the control we should. Users choose them and often don’t even tell us.”

This is called shadow IT. ”Real” IT hates shadow IT.

I replied that surely there must be useful solutions to this problem. “It’s a growing space,” he said.

Indeed, my own research shows that Gartner predicts Identity and Access Management (IAM) in the cloud will be one of the top three most sought-after services moving forward for cloud-based models.

But managing your employees’ cloud identities so they don’t have to memorize dozens of passwords – that’s not without its challenges.

Multiple IAM Challenges

“The last company I worked for tried to build their own system to do this,” my friend continued, “but it got expensive and complicated, especially trying to account for mobile devices. Plus, they were reluctant to put their active directory in the cloud. So they paid for a service that appeared to address the need, but the costs kept escalating. It wasn’t a turnkey solution.”

“And who do you trust? If you don’t have full confidence that the system you choose is going to protect your identities from all forms of intrusion, you can’t go there.”

For him, the security issue is an especially hot topic.

He works for a finance company, which needs to comply with many regulations. He told me that while his IT department spends an incredible amount of time trying to cover all their bases for compliance, for many companies, all it takes is one user with one unauthorized cloud app to undo all that hard work.

Is it a question of user education, I asked? It is and it isn’t, he said. “We do a lot of training, but in the end, we need the tools to make sure we’re not relying on users. They need to do their part, but we need control to make sure they don’t mess things up inadvertently.”

As if he wasn’t already depressed enough talking about all this, he reminded himself of another issue: partners. Sometimes they have outsiders coming in for a few days or weeks, and those consultants need to be able to access the cloud-based apps his company relies on. File-sharing is a good example. But when that person’s brief tenure is over, how closely is anyone managing their access to sensitive files? Without a tight, secure system for all this, there are too many holes and too many risks.

How does your company handle it all? Is the enterprise world clamoring for a better, more secure way?

]]>http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2014/10/identity-management/feed/0503204541alrehman81503204541Enabling Mobile Enterprises to Balance Protection and Productivityhttp://bizblog.blackberry.com/2014/09/enabling-mobile-enterprises-to-balance-protection-and-productivity/
http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2014/09/enabling-mobile-enterprises-to-balance-protection-and-productivity/#commentsMon, 29 Sep 2014 06:00:30 +0000http://bizblog.blackberry.com/?p=14422/ Read More]]>Would you like to travel across the city or the country without compromising other commitments, like turning in those reports on time? Do you feel confined to your cubicle, willing to give anything to have full access to things like corporate files while working from home? You’re not alone with your frustrations; hence the mobile workforce trend that is sweeping through government, healthcare, finance, and other organizations across the nation.

Mobile productivity allows employees to do their jobs efficiently and effectively, no matter their location. Whether it‘s a field position or a worker wishing to edit documents while sitting by the lake, employees are investing in mobile devices and applications to get the job done on-the-go. If you’re the head of any business, you need to be aware of the trends creeping into your workforce … and be prepared to safely deal with them.

Mobile Productivity

As more workers access corporate data remotely, keeping information secure has become a top concern for all organizations – and it should be. An alarming 71% of data breaches have resulted from targeting user devices and 66% of those go undetected for six months or longer, according to the 2013 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report. With recent successful cyber-attacks, including those that hit Gmail and iCloud, the security conversation isn’t going anywhere anytime soon – and neither are we.

Data leaks can hurt the profits and credibility of any organization, as Target experienced with their Christmas 2013 breach. The retailer is still rebuilding the trust of its 40 million customers.

All organizations should be aware of the potential dangers of cybersecurity attacks, especially as the trend of employees using mobile devices for work continues to grow. As the number of devices and applications connected to a corporate network increase, so do the chances increase for the company’s infrastructure to become weak and vulnerable to attacks. The need for protection of the mobile workforce is becoming more attractive by the day, so it’s no surprise that BlackBerry’s BES10 continues to be the market leader for mobile security.

Protection and Productivity

BES10 is an enterprise mobility management (EMM) solution that delivers a compelling end-user experience while protecting the organization from data loss, theft, and potential attacks. BES10 receives top-tier approval from enterprise and government agencies for its containerization, encryption, and two-way authentication capabilities.

As detailed in one of our white papers, “Separating Work and Personal: How BlackBerry Balance Works at the Platform Level,” companies using the BlackBerry Balance feature on their BlackBerry 10 smartphones, in conjunction with BES10, can create separate environments for work and personal data to prevent emails, applications, and information from leaking from one space into the other. This allows end users to use the devices and personal applications of their choice without worrying that their privacy is being compromised.

IT managers aren’t able to peek into what goes on in personal work spaces, but still have the ability to control which company information an employee has access to. They can also manage corporate applications, control network connectivity, and wipe all corporate information from a device if necessary, such as if it is lost or an employee leaves the company.

BlackBerry Balance is built directly into BlackBerry 10 devices, but BES10 also allows IT managers to provide secure, separated work spaces on Android and iOS smartphones. Workers are able to do their jobs anywhere on any device that meets their personal needs, while the boss can rest assured that employees are happy and data won’t be leaked.

This update builds on the existing Documents To Go foundation for rich mobile editing, high quality presenting, and secure enterprise-grade access to all your important corporate and personal files. Docs To Go is now deeply integrating with more cloud-based solutions and sprinkling in new collaborative features. Now BlackBerry users can turn what may have been a dull, desktop, grind-it-out type of day into a sunny, productive, on-the-go and in-the-know, typical BlackBerry day!

Here’s what’s new:

Support for Microsoft OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive) with the new Connect to OneDrive app available in BlackBerry World today

Support for Microsoft SharePoint with the updated BlackBerry Work Drives app for secure access to corporate documents

The ability to share links to files stored in the cloud removes the need to send large attachments or manage multiple copies of a file and allows for more efficient collaboration

You can now view and insert comments in spreadsheets

Enhancements to Presenter mode include the time and a timer to help keep presentations on schedule, and the option to move between your slides using the Volume up and Volume down keys lets you keep your focus on the audience

Slideshow To Go now supports hundreds of animations, transitions, and all 150 types of SmartArt found in Microsoft PowerPoint for one of the most reliable and accurate experiences on a mobile platform

Jump to slides more quickly and navigate through large presentations with a new progress bar slider

Support for document rights managed and encrypted attachments with GigaTrust, allowing for increased enterprise document security

]]>http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2014/03/reach-for-the-clouds-with-docs-to-go-exciting-new-updates/feed/0Devices with Doc to Goiae100Docs on the GoDevices with Doc to GoBlackBerry Introduces New Foundation for Enterprise Mobilityhttp://bizblog.blackberry.com/2014/02/blackberry-introduces-new-foundation-for-enterprise-mobility/
http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2014/02/blackberry-introduces-new-foundation-for-enterprise-mobility/#commentsTue, 25 Feb 2014 08:28:45 +0000http://bizblog.blackberry.com/?p=12916/ Read More]]>At Mobile World Congress we’ve unveiled plans for a new enterprise mobility solution that is application-enabled and unifies BES10 and BES5 to one platform. In addition, a new promotional program provides free migration to BES10, while a new pricing structure enables customers to simplify their enterprise mobility management (EMM) environment to a single trusted provider.

BlackBerry’s enterprise strategy is to extend beyond EMM to an application-based environment and ecosystem that provides a highly productive end-user experience. This will enable organizations to develop and deploy new services to mobile devices faster.

“BES10 is the only mobility management solution that meets the highest security demands of regulated industries and is also flexible enough for BYOD,” said John Sims, President, Global Enterprise Solutions at BlackBerry. “This value proposition is why the new BES12 architecture is designed to ensure that the more than 80,000 existing BES customers can seamlessly migrate forward. As we execute on our long term vision, we will offer all customers the opportunity to move forward with us. The investment customers make in BlackBerry today will be a valuable investment for the future.”

As part of BlackBerry’s long term strategy, the Company is developing the next generation of the BES platform to enable organizations to develop enterprise-grade applications that can be quickly deployed to BlackBerry smartphones and other mobile devices.

The new BES12 platform will focus on delivering the following core capabilities:

Backwards Compatible and Future Proof: BlackBerry OS devices will be supported and the new platform provides the foundation for customers to integrate new mobile endpoints, enhanced user self-service, advanced service management, highly scalable datacenter-grade deployments, and implement active-active high availability clusters for ultimate reliability.

Enhanced Multi-Platform Support: BlackBerry continues its commitment to providing multi-platform solutions and will add support for Windows Phone 8 in addition to already supported iOS® and Android™ and BlackBerry 10.

Connect Cloud and Mobile: The flexibility and scalability of the new BES12 architecture will provide customers with the ability to move from on-premise to the cloud effortlessly and securely. The new platform will support all deployment models, including on-premise, public cloud, private cloud and hybrid environments.

BlackBerry also announced today a new EZ Pass program that provides free migration for customers to move from other less secure MDM platforms to BES10 as well as a new pricing structure.

For existing BES10 customers, the EZ Pass program will match any active existing on-premise BES license and any active license customers may have from other MDM vendors with a corresponding Silver BES10 perpetual license.(1) Customers will also receive free Advantage-level technical support with their new license to help them get up and running fast.

The new pricing and licensing structure provides two simple tiers, Silver and Gold. Silver includes full device, application, email and security management for BlackBerry, iOS and Android devices, including the unique BlackBerry® Balance™. Gold adds BlackBerry’s Secure Work Space containerization solution for iOS and Android, and advanced BlackBerry 10 management and security features for the most security-conscious organizations, including government, financial services and healthcare.

BlackBerry also announced today several new enterprise-grade applications, including:

The eBBM™ Suite:a new family of products and services that work with BlackBerry smartphones and BES and BES10 to provide enterprise-class mobile messaging that brings together the core strengths of BBM with features and capabilities aimed at enterprises. BBM Protected will be the first solution offered in the new eBBM Suite, bringing regulated industries the most secure and reliable real-time mobile messaging in the industry.

SAP has certified SAP Fiori to run on BlackBerry 10 browsers which support HTML5, providing customers with tools and resources to be productive and efficient. SAP Fiori is a collection of apps that represents the new SAP user experience paradigm. It offers various business roles across lines of business in a simple, easy-to-use experience for SAP software functionality.

The BES12 platform is expected to be available by the end of 2014. An early adopter program will be open for participation this summer. For more information on BlackBerry’s enterprise mobility management solutions,

Feel free to leave your comments below and don’t forget to join the conversation on @BlackBerry4Biz

(3) Terms and conditions apply (4) Availability and timing will vary by country and channel partner

As BlackBerry continues to transform its business by building a world-class team and bringing even greater focus to the company, I’m happy to announce the formation of QNX Software Systems’ new Cloud business.

In this growing, connected world, it’s more important than ever to create technologies that not only connect people to people, but that connect to machines and devices for greater communication and interaction. BlackBerry and QNX have a long history of developing solutions that do just that. Solutions that connect and support the Internet of Things, including embedded platforms, networks and devices, are at the heart of what QNX delivers. Consider this – while there are 5 billion handsets in the world that we want to connect to, there may be 500 billion devices out there that present a tremendous opportunity for an organization with the experience and track record of QNX. I’m thrilled to create a group within QNX that will be dedicated to bringing these solutions to market in a timely and cohesive manner. This business is being established alongside our existing organizations that serve the embedded market (including general embedded and automotive).

Alec Saunders will lead this new group as Vice President of the QNX Cloud business. I am confident Alec will be successful in his new position given his previous experience in helping to build BlackBerry’s dedicated developer community and growing the BlackBerry application ecosystem as Vice President of Developer Relations and Ecosystem Development. Alec is returning to his roots, as he previously held the VP Marketing role at QNX from 2001 to 2002.

In addition, Marty Mallick has been appointed Vice President, Global Alliances and Ecosystems, which combines Developer Relations with his current Business Development and BlackBerry World responsibilities. Having worked closely with Alec on the evolution of our ecosystem, there is no better person than Marty to continue to advance this work. Marty’s expertise will allow him to work with partners and developers to make BlackBerry 10 users even more productive and efficient.

These changes underscore our continued efforts to drive collaboration across BlackBerry operating units, while leveraging top internal talent to help seize emerging business opportunities. I look forward to sharing more information about our Cloud team at QNX in the coming months as their work progresses.

Feel free to leave your comments below or join the conversation on @BlackBerry4Biz

Enterprise-class mobile management is a critical requirement in today’s environment where most corporate users employ smartphones and where tablets are rapidly taking hold. Corporate Owned Privately Enabled (COPE) policies are becoming common in organizations that provide devices to their users. Further, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies are now prevalent in the majority of enterprises, thus increasing the diversity and complexity of user device requirements where a few years ago a single platform choice would have made things much simpler. As a result it is imperative that companies utilize a strategic mobile management solution to deploy, manage and secure the plethora of mobile devices prevalent in today’s increasingly mobile workforce.

Many organizations have transitioned to BYOD from an environment that was previously centered on corporate deployed BlackBerry devices. As more diversity becomes the norm through adoption of user acquired devices, enterprises wonder whether maintaining the BlackBerry BES infrastructure still makes sense. We believe it does. This paper will examine whether organizations should upgrade their BES to multi-platform support.

Finding a Strategic Mobility Management Solution

There are a large number of vendors providing mobile management products. We recently surveyed 270 enterprises to see which platforms they considered strategic. Figure 1 shows the percentage of companies that indicated BES and BES10 were strategic to their organizations for Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM). A significant number indicated they have not yet chosen. Further, Figure 2 shows the expected growth rates for BYOD devices that will require EMM within their organizations.

Figure 1: Strategic Choice for MDM Platform

Figure 2: Expected Growth Rates for Mobile Devices

No other mobility management solution came close to BES as strategic choice within the organizations surveyed. Indeed, with so many mostly smaller vendors offering solutions, companies run the risk of choosing a vendor that may not survive longer term as the market matures. We expect a major consolidation in solution vendors over the next 1-2 years. The majority of current pure-play MDM providers will either be acquired or fade away as the market moves on. Selecting a solution that will be around for the long term is important to keep cost and complexity under control.

Have Most Companies Made an MDM Choice?

Figure 3 indicates the phase of the MDM selection process the survey respondents were in.

Figure 3: What Phase of The MDM Deployment Process Are You In?

Only 9% indicated they have selected an MDM vendor and 16% indicated they have narrowed down the selection to a few prime candidates. Fully 60% of respondent companies are early in the selection process. Despite the MDM vendors’ marketing hype, relatively few companies have actually implemented solutions, and many still have a small number of seats deployed. While we believe MDM is a long term strategic enterprise requirement to control the growing installations of user selected devices, the market is moving deliberately to find the best product to fit an organization’s specific needs.

BlackBerry Responds to Device Platform Changes

Over the past 2 years, the number of enterprise users employing BlackBerry smartphone has declined. Despite the proven superior security and manageability of BlackBerry devices, users have moved to both Apple iOS and to a variety of Android devices. While BlackBerry devices continue to have a loyal following, they are unlikely to recover to previous market share levels.

Blackberry’s original claim to fame was it superior ability, through deployment of BES, to tightly manage and secure its devices. The ideal situation would be to extend BlackBerry’s capabilities to other devices that, while improving, do not yet approach the same level of manageability or security. BlackBerry responded to this challenge by extending its BES capabilities to both Android and iOS devices, originally through a product called Mobile Fusion. BES10 is the third release of the product launched in January 2013. It provides integrated management for competing devices and adds an optional layer of containerized security (Secure Work Space for Android and iOS) approaching what is available on native BlackBerry. This capability segregates the personal and work spaces on mobile devices. There are limits imposed by the iOS and Android platforms on what can be implemented, but the enhanced security significantly improves the base level OS capabilities on BYOD smartphones, and ultimately tablets. We view the BES10 solution as a market leader for cross platform EMM and BYOD deployments.

Searching for Options: On Site or Outsourced to the Cloud

Enterprises viewing EMM solutions are often unsure of their longer term requirements for deploying the products. Will they be on-premise, in the cloud or outsourced to third party vendors? Figure 4 indicates the percentage of companies expecting to outsource their mobile management.

It is important that enterprises select an EMM solution that offers maximum flexibility to either deploy an on-premise solution, or a cloud solution, or a combination of both (for example, it is not uncommon for organizations to deploy on-premise for corporate issued devices and in the cloud for BYOD). Further, a capability for self service can enhance user acceptance as well as reduce cost of operations. Finally, the ability to engage third parties to provide outsourced mobile management as a service is becoming more compelling. The latest iteration of BES10 provides on-premise and self service capability, and has multiple third party service providers. BES10 Cloud, preview-released in December 2013 adds full cloud deployment capability as well.

Replacement is Not a Simple Decision

Many companies are considering replacement of their existing mobile management platform, including some currently running BES. But often organizations make the decision before fully evaluating all of the important considerations. While not an all inclusive list, the chart below provides some guidance on the key components needing to be evaluated in any migration discussion. Each company will have its own requirements to add to this general list. It’s important to recognize that migrating from one platform to another is not free, nor is it always straightforward. There are real costs associated with any migration that may outweigh the perceived benefits. Often remaining with the current product is the best strategy.

Figure 5: Things to consider for strategic EMM platform migration

Working with BlackBerry: What’s the Risk?

Much has been speculated lately about BlackBerry’s future. With significant cash reserves, a new management team fully committed to the enterprise, a recent major investment, and continued operational cash from revenues to fund operations, there is little risk that BlackBerry will simply run out of funds and shutter its operations in the short to medium term. The company could be acquired, but any organization that purchases BlackBerry would want to keep operations of a strategic product like BES10 viable. Enterprises should feel comfortable making a strategic investment in BES10 and other BlackBerry products. We see little risk of BlackBerry simply closing its doors and leaving customers in the lurch. Therefore we evaluate the overall risk of working with BlackBerry as low, and companies should feel comfortable in doing so.

Should We Upgrade to BES10?

Companies need to pick the right solution and not be overly influenced by rumors and innuendos. Rip and replace for the sake of doing so does not make economic or operations sense. There is no significant risk in maintaining the use of BES for EMM. Indeed, upgrading to BES10 to include management of devices beyond BlackBerry smartphones can provide an advantage in implementation time, costs and IT operational efficiency. We recommend those organizations currently using previous versions of BES, even with a declining population of BlackBerry users, seriously consider upgrading to the latest version as an important way to fully manage BYOD and user selected devices.

Conclusions

Despite some third party assertions that BlackBerry is doomed, we do not believe there is a medium term (1-3 years) risk in continuing to use Blackberry solutions. It is more disruptive to eliminate BlackBerry and replace the BES solution with a third party product. Further, simply substituting Exchange ActiveSync as the MDM default solution will not provide the necessary level of management and/or security required by many enterprises. Finally, we consider the latest capabilities within BES10 that included a multi-platform capability and containerized work spaces to offer a leading array of capabilities. We feel confident recommending BES as a BYOD cross platform solution for either existing or new installations.

If you have any comments why not leave them below or join the conversation on @BlakBerry4Biz

Here at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo 2013, we are very excited to announce an upcoming BlackBerry cloud service that will bring trusted and simple enterprise mobility management to a new level of convenience.

The cloud service will be purpose-built to meet both business and end user needs, and will require no IT experience, servers, or software. Your employees will get the work information that they need to be more productive and efficient, without an impact on personal use and privacy. Confidently tackle BYOD, manage apps, get friendly technical support, and a whole lot more.

All this in a flexible package that will cost less than a cup of coffee a month.

Simple and fast deployment. No server hardware or software to install, just register and go.

Administrators can secure, deploy and manage apps. Administrators will be able to build a catalog of public apps from the App StoreSM, Google Play and the BlackBerry World storefront, and then view app distribution and usage for all users and devices.

End-users can manage their own devices through the self-service console. End-users will be able to easily perform common management tasks such as setting up or changing device passwords and remote wipe and lock without relying on an administrator, giving them independence and saving on helpdesk calls.

Be the first to get informed when it becomes available, and get on the list to receive exclusive updates:

(Shameless self-disclaimer: I’m a file hoarder of the worst sort. PowerPoint presentations on the enterprise road map from 2007? Still got ‘em. Press release from BlackBerry Pearl smartphone launch? In my media kit folder. Photos from my high school Euro-trip? Purple hair…what was I thinking?!)

Luckily for me, with BlackBerry 10, I now have access to my digital underworld of perfectly organized online file folders, spanning the far depths of my carefully curated folder collection.

Now that BlackBerry 10 has launched, we can officially spill the beans. Some of our favorite online file management and collaboration tools come not just pre-loaded, but deeply integrated into the BlackBerry 10 platform! With the graceful swipe of a fingertip, all BlackBerry 10 smartphone customers can now easily flow on over to a wide array of well-known and secure cloud storage and collaboration tools – Box and DropBox in particular.

With these tools, you can attach files from the cloud straight from the BlackBerry Hub, without needing to switch apps or leave your “compose” screen. There’s also the ability to press the “share” button (ie. when viewing a photo, file or video), and add that file directly into your cloud storage space. Using BlackBerry Balance, there is also the ability to see files from both your personal and work profile, if your work space is unlocked.

We’ve also designed it so that when you’re looking at content with File Manager, or when opening documents in Documents To Go, you can browse all of your cloud accounts too. Even your “recently used documents” include your latest cloud files!

For those who’ve already jumped on the cloud storage bandwagon – virtual high five! Points to you for your file-saving and sharing prowess. For those who have yet to experience the time-saving benefits, you are definitely going to appreciate why these tools have become so popular with the IT and business crowd. Using cloud storage apps like Box and DropBox means you can easily save, share and store files, all safely and securely in your own personal online file storage space. These tools allow you to virtually share your folders with friends, colleagues and business partners – no more need to exchange an old fashioned USB stick or be the culprit of sending the 20MB PowerPoint attachment that clogs up everyone’s inbox (queue collective sigh of relief).

At BlackBerry, we know our customers are powerful multi-taskers, always on the go with places to be and people to see. That’s why integrating cloud-based file sharing tools directly into our BlackBerry 10 platform was an easy decision. When drafting an email on your BlackBerry smartphone, having the ability to quickly flow over to your file management center and choose your file storage app of choice, is not only super convenient – but also a quick way to get stuff done. Through my testing of the file storage and sharing capabilities, I also quickly figured out that when drafting an email or document, all you have to do is click the attachment icon to add attachments – this happens instantly – straight from the cloud! Built on a core BlackBerry 10 cornerstone of removing the need for the old in-and-out paradigm, there was no need to switch between my file storage app and my email to add the attachment. Everything I needed to access to add my attachment was all at my fingertips by tapping the attachment icon!

I also prefer to travel without my laptop. With BlackBerry 10, I use cloud storage to simplify my life. By bringing my photos, docs, PowerPoints, spreadsheets and videos anywhere I go with my BlackBerry 10 smartphone, I can easily share my files wherever I am in the world. Last week, I was in a meeting and didn’t even need to bring my laptop to present a blog story idea to my colleagues. I was able to pull up my PowerPoint presentation via my cloud storage app of choice on my BlackBerry 10 smartphone. I quickly plugged in my micro HDMI cable, opened my cloud storage app and presented to everyone on our office projection screen – all from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

The possibilities are endless for staying organized with BlackBerry 10.

Have you tried out any of the file management apps mentioned in this blog post? If so, how has the experience been? Let me know by commenting below!

In the business industry, things are always changing. In order to keep up with emerging trends and industry news, I do a lot of reading. A couple of months ago, Maribel Lopez of Lopez Research published a study titled “Mobile, Social and Cloud Transform Business and IT” addressing how these three major technology trends are changing business today.

Lopez Research estimates that there will be more than 30 billion connected mobile devices and 6 billion mobile internet users by 2020. As industries like consumer electronics and automotive include mobile sensors in virtually all products, many of the 6 billion mobile Internet users will use mobile technologies as their only or primary connection to the Internet.

Mobility will transform business in four ways:

Connecting Phones, Tablets and the “Internet of Things”: Companies will need to adapt current network connectivity models and plan for a substantial rise in real-time information. Additionally, companies will need to prepare for various interaction models, including people to people, people to things, and machine to machine. Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solutions like BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion will allow organizations to manage company and/or employee-owned devices on multiple platforms and reduce the risk of lost or stolen devices.

Rebuilding Business Processes to Work in a Mobile World: Because mobility-optimized systems are task oriented, companies will need to change how applications and processes are created. Applications will need to be able to deliver sensory information and be device-aware, location-aware, and network/cloud-aware.

Creating Portable Services: As more people begin to carry multiple mobile devices, content and services will also be readily available at any location. Applications like BlackBerry® Bridge allow you to pair your BlackBerry® smartphone with a BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet to access documents, browsing, emails, messagin,g and photos. Also, the Citrix Receiver app allows users to access a virtual desktop with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

Supporting Multiple Personas Per Individual: In the past, enterprise features were locked to a specific device, but as mobility evolves, technology like BlackBerry® Balance™ will enable IT to separate corporate and personal data — essential to supporting a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) environment. By separating personal data and applications from corporate data and applications, both the employee’s information and the organization’s information will remain private.

While mobility will create new opportunities for businesses, it also opens up potential security and management risks in addition to “business-process challenges.” As these technologies continue to evolve and embed themselves more deeply in our everyday lives, businesses must prepare to adapt to the changes they will bring. In order to address these risks and challenges, businesses must create a mobile strategy that addresses security and management and support of multiple device operating systems. Lopez research suggests a three-step plan to prepare for the changes mobile brings:

For more about how mobility will transform business and what organizations should do to prepare for the change, read the study: “Mobile, Social and Cloud Transform Business and IT”

Has your organization begun to see any of these changes from Mobile, Social and Cloud technologies? What strategies will you be adopting to confront the transformation?

]]>http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2012/09/lopez-research-mobile-social-cloud/feed/0lukereim1BlackBerry World 2012 General Session: The Vision for BlackBerry in the Enterprisehttp://bizblog.blackberry.com/2012/05/blackberry-world-2012-general-session-the-vision-for-blackberry-in-the-enterprise/
http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2012/05/blackberry-world-2012-general-session-the-vision-for-blackberry-in-the-enterprise/#commentsThu, 03 May 2012 15:19:07 +0000http://bizblog.blackberry.com/?p=7624/ Read More]]>Today during the BlackBerry World™ 2012 general session, Robin Bienfait (RIM Chief Information Officer) and Alan Panezic (RIM VP of Enterprise Product Management and Marketing) shared an exciting vision for the future of Research In Motion (RIM) enterprise solutions. Celebrating the successes of the past year, Robin spoke of the launch of BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion, Direct Enterprise Connection, and BlackBerry® Business Cloud Services – enterprise solutions promised at last year’s BlackBerry World conference, and delivered as committed.

As Thorsten Heins stated during the last quarterly earnings call, RIM remains committed to our enterprise customers. We’re designing a tightly focused and dedicated plan to continue to deliver solutions that are scalable, secure, and tailored to specific business needs. In an exciting announcement earlier today, Robin stated that by next year’s BlackBerry World, BlackBerry Mobile Fusion will be offered on-site as it is now, as a hosted and managed solution through partners, or completely in the cloud. Couple this with the evolving concept of a mobile office powered by BlackBerry 10, and the future is certainly bright for enterprise mobility.

Check out the videos below to hear it straight from Robin and Alan, and share what you’re most excited about in the comments below!

We’re super excited about this year’s BlackBerry World™ – plans are well underway and we can’t wait for May 1st, 2012. Registration is now officially open, so head over to www.blackberryworld.com and reserve your spot ASAP.

BlackBerry World is the largest BlackBerry® conference of the year where the community of BlackBerry users, partners, business leaders, and IT decision makers meet to learn of the latest innovations, upcoming BlackBerry products and services, mobile strategy, and to check out live demonstrations. The conference is also a fantastic networking opportunity to meet with individuals in similar roles facing similar challenges and industry trends.

Did you attend BlackBerry World 2011? What was your favorite part of the conference? Share in the comments.

]]>http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2012/02/blackberry-world-2012-registration/feed/1lukereim1BlackBerry WorldSmall Business Gone Social: How We Can Helphttp://bizblog.blackberry.com/2012/02/small-business-social-media/
http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2012/02/small-business-social-media/#commentsFri, 03 Feb 2012 17:58:33 +0000http://bizblog.blackberry.com/?p=7042]]>It’s no secret that many large and small/medium sized businesses (SMBs) have plunged into the world of social media with a variety of goals, on a variety of channels and at varying frequency. This may seem like an obvious statement, and it very well may be. But I believe that many small and medium businesses have only tapped the surface in terms of the value that can be gained from social activity, especially considering the relatively low investment required to begin participating in the social sphere.

Marcy, our SMB expert and author of the “SMB Cloud Series” (be sure to check out her posts on Cloud Storage, The Mobile Web, and Accounting in the Cloud – stay tuned for more in the series!) steered the ship on the below video outlining how BlackBerry can help SMB’s stay connected to the social web.

I won’t get into pages and pages of how businesses can use social media to drive value, but know that there is activity in the social media space around customer relationship management, content and engagement for brand awareness, a wide reach for communication, customer service and support, recruitment, and market insights for uses like product or service development (to name a few). Feel free to check out a whitepaper on Mobile Social Networking via Computerworld.

A Million Things to Do

Running a small or medium sized business clearly means taking on a variety of roles as an individual, and you may not yet be at the point where you can bring in a few social media managers, community managers, copywriters, and platform experts. For you (or whoever is heading up your social initiatives), staying connected and keeping tabs on multiple social channels can prove to be challenging and time-consuming. This is where we can help! BlackBerry software and operating systems on smartphones and tablets have become progressively social-friendly, and are now at the point where they can serve as your hub of communications to not only monitor, but also actively engage in social activities in pursuit of your business goals.

This is the third entry in our small and medium sized businesses (SMB) Cloud blog post series (check out part 1 on cloud storage and part 2 on the cloud and mobile web if you haven’t already!), and an opportunity to tell you about a great offer from two key players in the mobile accounting space.

What’s more important to your business than getting paid, and what’s better than getting paid fast? An endless stream of payments, I suppose, but perhaps we could look at solutions for that in future posts. In the meantime, the ability to know where your business stands – where it is on orders placed, invoices sent and paid, or stock levels from anywhere at any time – can give you a competitive advantage. It allows you to better manage cash flow, develop new business opportunities and accurately plan into the future.

Whether you are still relying on older accounting software to keep your finances in order or you have moved on to more ‘robust’ products, being able to invoice a customer as soon as the product or service has been delivered, thereby speeding up the payment cycle, can only help your bottom line.

To that end, one of the leaders in online invoicing, FreshBooks, and their mobile app partner ReportAway!® have got a handy solution for you. Here’s some info on what you can expect with ReportAway! for FreshBooks:

ReportAway! is a FreshBooks application for BlackBerry® smartphones that allows you to create invoices and track time to your FreshBooks account wherever you are. From ReportAway!, you can create invoices to your FreshBooks account, which can be sent out immediately to your clients. It also allows you to enter payments, create estimates, track time to your projects, and add expenses while on the go. There is also a handy mileage calculator for automobile expense entries.

ReportAway! integrates with native BlackBerry smartphone Phone, Contacts, Calendar and Task applications. You can also import BlackBerry device phone logs, calendar events, or tasks as time into FreshBooks, as well as importing BlackBerry contacts as FreshBooks clients.

FreshBooks, and their mobile app partner ReportAway! have come together to create a great offer for you to try out their cloud based accounting solutions. Here are the basics:

You may also be entered to win a BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet! For full details on the offer and promotion, check out the FreshBooks blog post.

Why not give it a try? Let us know what you think of the app in the comments.

]]>http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2011/12/smb-cloud-series-3-get-paid-quickly-how-accounting-in-the-cloud-can-improve-your-competitive-advantage/feed/2marcyd1smb_get_paid_quicklysmb_get_paid_quickly_2and3BlackBerry Innovation Forums are launching top businesses into cloud computinghttp://bizblog.blackberry.com/2011/11/blackberry-innovation-forums-cloud-computing/
http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2011/11/blackberry-innovation-forums-cloud-computing/#commentsWed, 23 Nov 2011 18:29:05 +0000http://bizblog.blackberry.com/?p=6872]]>The Cloud is starting to gather momentum as an idea and as an asset, particularly in enterprise. Gartner’s recent list of the ”Top 10 Strategic Technologies” states that 2012 will see IT leaders move from trying to understand what the Cloud can do for them and actually start implementing solutions. The recently launched BlackBerry® Management Centre is a good example of how BlackBerry is embracing the Cloud and developing new services for customers to use, as is the newly announced BlackBerry® Business Cloud Services for Microsoft® Office® 365 (more on these later).

Discussions about how Cloud computing and services can drive impact for cost management and solution delivery played a key part at our recent BlackBerry® Innovation Forum in Amsterdam, and these topics will also be a major focus for our remaining events across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The BlackBerry platform has a heritage in the cloud, operating in it for nearly 12 years with a proven system for security and data protection. (The “Cloud” means different things to different users, but includes options such as web-based applications, such as email, through to data storage and data farms.)

Why cloud computing?

The Cloud is about information management, and companies naturally want to give employees access to information in the easiest and most cost efficient way. Using the Cloud can be one of the best solutions for information management for a number of reasons:

For companies who don’t want the hassle of IT issues, they can purchase Cloud computing solutions to help keep IT costs low as the initial cost barrier of entry is generally low.

Pricing for Cloud computing can include options to only pay for what you have used. There is a clear understanding of what services you pay for to help forecast operating expenditures.

Cloud computing is scalable and flexible. It gives you the ability to adjust your services for season peaks and troughs to give you a totally customizable service that doesn’t require long-term capital commitments. For large Enterprise businesses, this can save costs by way of outsourcing services to the Cloud.

BlackBerry Management Centre is a service that allows businesses to centrally manage their devices and provide email support from all major web browsers, simply and effectively without the need for specialist skills or IT systems support, all for free. BlackBerry Business Cloud Services for Microsoft Office 365 allows organizations to realize the benefits of using Microsoft Office 365, such as Microsoft® Office and Microsoft Exchange email through their BlackBerry smartphones – and all through the Cloud. You can learn more about these innovations and how they can benefit your business by joining the conversations at our BlackBerry Innovation Forum events or via @BBEMEABusiness using the hashtag #BIF11.

]]>http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2011/11/blackberry-innovation-forums-cloud-computing/feed/0hajiran1Cloud services and your business: What’s your strategy?http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2011/11/cloud-services-and-business/
http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2011/11/cloud-services-and-business/#commentsFri, 18 Nov 2011 17:43:48 +0000http://bizblog.blackberry.com/?p=6857]]>Recently, we announced the launch of the BlackBerry® Cloud Service for Microsoft® Office® 365 Beta offering. We’ve had some great feedback from the industry and our customers, but several IT managers wanted a bit more information on what they need to do to take full advantage of this cloud solution.

Cloud computing based solutions continue to be an increasingly important part of IT strategies. Regardless of where your organization is at today, they’ll want to start thinking about their migration plans and taking time to work out a robust transition schedule that minimizes any business disruptions. Additionally when you think about email and other facets of the Microsoft Office 365 suite, consider the non-communication uses of email. Many companies use email for invoice routing, updating CRM systems through formatted shortcodes, and the like. What are those business needs? How will they be impacted? How could these workflows benefit, not only from a cloud based alternative, but also from being made mobile?

Now, if you’re a customer on a pre-existing Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) solution, BlackBerry smartphones will continue to be supported for existing BPOS Customers until you transition to Microsoft Office 365. You can continue using your BlackBerry devices with existing Microsoft service for Exchange Online with no discontinuation of service until your transition. The previous $10/month fee was removed in March, so connecting your BlackBerry device to your Microsoft solution is free!

For new Microsoft Office 365 customers, simply sign up for a trial or full subscription of Microsoft Office 365 and you will have the option to add BlackBerry smartphone connectivity through the BlackBerry Business Cloud Service offering within the Microsoft Office 365 portal. Once you have agreed to the BlackBerry Cloud Service Terms and Conditions you will be able to provision and manage BlackBerry smartphones within your organization.

We encourage you to take advantage of this offer and register your organization for the BlackBerry Business Cloud Service Beta. This program will allow organizations to get a feel for the service offering and see how it fits with their business needs. Not only will this help to put you ahead of your peers, but the feedback you provide will help us continue to improve the product and ensure it meets your specific needs moving forward.

So, what are you waiting for? Get started with your organization’s Beta now!

]]>http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2011/11/cloud-services-and-business/feed/0Roger B.Affordably accelerate your business with BlackBerry Business Cloud Services and Microsoft Office 365 (Beta)http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2011/11/microsoft-365-open-beta/
http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2011/11/microsoft-365-open-beta/#commentsMon, 07 Nov 2011 15:15:09 +0000http://bizblog.blackberry.com/?p=6809]]>We recently announced that BlackBerry® Business Cloud Services for Microsoft® Office 365 has officially gone into open beta in more than 30 countries around the world, and we’d like to extend an official invitation to our customers to participate. Given all the interest in cloud services across the industry, I thought I’d dig into this offering a bit more to provide some additional background.

This product has been in the works for some time. Earlier this year, we announced an agreement with Microsoft to develop a cloud-based service to deliver Microsoft Office 365 content to BlackBerry smartphones. Following up on that, we shared our overall cloud strategy with customers throughout BlackBerry World™ 2011. And over the past several months, we’ve been fortunate to work with a number of customers who participated in an early access program to help us develop our BlackBerry Business Cloud Services for Microsoft Office 365 product – a major milestone in delivering cloud benefits for our customers!

BlackBerry Business Cloud Services is designed to deliver a simple and affordable way for companies to manage BlackBerry smartphones with Microsoft Office 365. Available at no additional charge to Microsoft Office 365 subscribers, this secure service, hosted by Research In Motion® (RIM®), is designed to directly link Microsoft® Exchange Online with BlackBerry smartphones to offer reliable, mobile access to synchronized email, calendar, contacts, tasks and memo pads.

While end users will see this as a great mobile solution for accessing their business information when on the go, from an IT perspective, there’s a lot more going on under the covers. As part of an overall BlackBerry solution, IT organizations can benefit from enterprise-oriented elements including:

Separation of individual/corporate data: BlackBerry® Balance™ technology is designed to present a unified view of work and personal content on BlackBerry smartphones connected to an organization’s BlackBerry® Enterprise Server or BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Express while keeping content separate and secure behind the scenes – minimizing both corporate security and personal privacy issues.

Easy management: IT administrators have access to a web-based console to provision, manage and secure BlackBerry smartphones from almost anywhere. The intuitive, web-based interface is designed to provide the tools administrators need to perform common tasks like password reset or to find/lock/wipe lost devices, and so on.

End user self-service: Individuals have access to online tools for basic self-service functions. Using an integrated single sign-on between Microsoft Office 365 and BlackBerry Business Cloud Services, end users have online self-service options that help make managing devices more efficient, including the ability to reset a device password or remotely lock/wipe a device in the event of loss or theft.

Evergreen™ software: Since BlackBerry Business Cloud Services are hosted by RIM, they are always up to date. We ensure that you benefit from the latest version of BlackBerry software, eliminating the need for IT to manually execute upgrades. This helps to reduce organizational labor and hardware costs.

Are you on the cloud? Have you accessed any beta products from RIM for your organization? Now’s your chance!

Cloud, cloud, cloud – it’s all about the cloud! In fact, we have just launched a cloud solution to help Small and Medium sized businesses better manage their BlackBerry® devices – the free BlackBerry Management Center. But what does all of this cloud talk really mean to businesses like yours? My guess is that you use cloud solutions every day – maybe you have been for years – but just haven’t necessarily been referring to them as ‘cloud’. Does your business use webmail? Cloud. What about an integrated voice mail system accessed from your mobile device? Cloud. Online payment services, again – cloud. Internet banking, you got it – cloud. The list goes on.

We thought it might be good to start some dialogue around the concept of ‘cloud’ and what it means to you in your work life. We are open to ideas (send them in or use the comments!) but ‘cloud storage’ seemed like a good place to start.*

Businesses, regardless of size or focus, need to have a secure, reliable and easily accessible storage solution for all of their important data. Oftentimes this information needs to be stored centrally so that groups of people, both internal and external to your company, can access them. This is probably even more relevant in today’s “total mobility and wireless work from anywhere at any time-ability.” (I’m thinking that I will coin that phrase!)
There are loads of solutions out there today to meet these needs, from complex backup systems to lightweight, software-as-a-service (SaaS) offers. Given this post focuses on the ‘Cloud and Small Business,’ I thought I would run through a great new ‘sign up and go’ service with a particularly good offer for BlackBerry users.

Box.net is a storage, collaboration, and workflow tool geared towards small business needs. Box.net is designed to allow businesses to share files and get necessary approvals from clients. They can access and check the status of the data from virtually anywhere their day takes them, as well as assign tasks and add comments as needed. Administrative controls are easy to assign and can be done on the fly.

For a limited time, Box.net is offering 50GB of storage free (a value of $20/month!) to BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet owners. Download the Box.net application for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet between September 7, 2011 and December 31, 2011 and sign in or register to receive 50 GB free storage Make sure that you don’t miss out! To check out all of the details and take advantage of this promotion, head over to www.box.net/playbook. Once you’re up and running with a box.net account and app on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, I think you can consider yourself an official user of ‘the cloud’.

Do you currently use a cloud storage solution at your company? Beyond straight storage, what do you do with them?

* By posting a comment below you acknowledge that you have read and accept these terms and conditions and that any ideas you post will be the property of RIM in accordance with these terms and conditions.